Think This Way

You've heard we should "walk this way." Maybe it's how we should act in certain situations or how we should be good Christians or something else. And it may even be good advice. Have you ever considered how we should think?

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col 3:1-5)

The "therefore" at the beginning refers to Paul's explanation in the previous chapter that we were "buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God" (Col 2:12). Based on that, we "have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world" (Col 2:20). So, raised with Christ, we must "keep seeking the things above." We need to "Set your mind on the things above." Think this way

This seems like an impossible task. We're surrounded every day with "elementary principles of the world." We're bombarded with "immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed." It's in our entertainment, our advertisement, our conversation, our entire lives. And Paul says, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God." Are we living that way? Are we thinking that way? When I learned to drive, my instructor told me, "Don't look at the parked cars." "Why?" I asked him. "I need to avoid them." He said, "You always go where you look. Look down the road and not just in front of you." Paul is telling us the same. Don't look around you. You'll go that way. Look to Christ, to the things above. Think that way.